29 December 2013

A-Snaring We Shall Go

What follows is a recap of the past three days beginning Friday, 27 December.

We had a dramatic weather change and are expecting another tomorrow and
still another by Sunday. We saw a spike in temps today, shot way up to
the high 20s low 30s even. I know that sounds weird but we've not been
above 5 to 10 degrees for several weeks now. Low 30s today, supposed to
be mid 20s and snow tomorrow, then a high of -10 on Sunday with lows of
-30 to -40 accounting for windchill.

With weather like that on the way I expect the animals will be moving.
So, I decided to strap up and head out to try some snaring. I didn't
have much light left after work today so I had to walk back in the dark.

While the snow might not look deep in the video, that's packed snow from
my shoes and the snomogo on the trail. Stepping off that trail even
with snowshoes on took me to over the mid-calf depth, would be mid thigh
without snowshoes.

The video is my lame attempt at a cliff hanger, if you watch to the end you get it.

I've not done a lot of snaring in the past so I'm still learning. Bound
to make some mistakes but I'm hell bent on mastering it.

Day Two

Well I got skunked. Couple of the snares were closed but they were misses, the rest had no activity.

I decided to make the best of it and spent the rest of the day
snowshoeing and setting new snares. I've got high hopes and will head
back out in the AM to check them even though it's supposed to be -45
windchill with a high of -10 now. Going to be brutal cold but I'm going
anyway!

Here's some shots from today's goofin off.

Kind of a gloomy start to the day. The unseasonable warm temps the day before caused a lot of fog and mist.

This is the snare kit with 2 snares left to deploy. Pretty handy and
simple kit really. A Leatherman Wave does the work. Some black wire for
securing the snares. These snares are 1/16 7 x 7 cable, Thompson style.

I cut some new trails where the snow was untouched. Man it's still powdery.

Even with shoes I was sinking six to eight inches, sometimes more.

Shot of the back trail.

I ended up circling around to one of my old hunting camps. Was good to
see the frame and gear deck still in place three years later. The
lashings have held well.

Gear for the day. Savage 24V rechambered from .222 to .223 because of
ammo accessibility, over .20ga with 3" chamber. I love this gun.
BisonGear pack, Lucky 1-2 Sutlery LRRP hat.

Since tomorrow is supposed to be so cold I'll switch to the pack
basket and break out the heavy wool. Should be a fun day if I avoid
frostbite!

We shall see what tomorrow brings...

Well the video speaks for itself, though I monkied it up and mixed the edits in reverse on the fire ignition versus the actual fire. Bleh. Nothing but brutal cold and I think part of my brain is still sluggish.

I'm going to try again next weekend but instead of six I'm going to deploy eighteen as well as some fox and bobcat sets, we'll wait and see how it goes.

I don't want to sound too critical here, and it is hard to tell from the pictures, but thought I might add an observation. It looks as if your snare hoops are way too big. I assume that you were going for snowshoes, but it looks like a bunny could go right through those hoops with out getting caught. I haven't snared rabbits since I was a kid, using picture hanging wire, but back then I always found a smaller loop to be the ticket. Anxious for the next installment. Stay warm!

Not critical and I've surmised the same, my loops were too big but it didn't matter for most of the sets. I had marked the snow on either side of the snare for a fair distance. I did this so I'd know if a rabbit had come through or not. Only in one case was the marking disturbed and that was a miss.

Next go round I'm going to reduce the loop size for sure. Thanks for the feedback.